History has been made as Kenyan Athlete Eliud Kipchoge breaks the two-hour marathon mark and breaks one of sports toughest time barriers.
Eliud, 34, and his team of pacemakers took on the challenge earlier today in the Ineos 1:59 challenge in Vienna, in aid of scientific research.
Despite this landmark for long distance running, this record will not go on as an official world record because it wasn’t in real competition.
Nevertheless what the Kenyan runner has done has unquestionably changed the course of running forever and what is capable.
When talking about his achievement post-race Kipchoge said: “This shows no-one is limited.”
He went on to say: “Now I’ve done it I am expecting more people to do it after me.”
Despite this event only unfolding only a few hours ago, the whole world has been mesmerised by the Kenyans feat and social media has took to storm to praise and talk about this momentous occasion with #INEOS159 trending.
Eliud needs a public holiday, a sports line, a documentary, an action figure, a movie… everything. Give him everything he wants. He’s superhuman!!! ????#Eliud159 #INEOS159
— Anne Mwaura (@ItsAnneMwaura) October 12, 2019
To breakdown the actual brilliance of this run here is a look at the time of Eliud’s race time in detail.
5km-00:14:10
10km-00:28:20
15km-00:42:34
20km-00:56:47
25km-01:10:59
30km-01:25:11
35km-01:39:23
40km-01:53:36
Finish-01:59:40
This shows that the Kenyan was running every mile on an average of under five minutes, when you compare this to Roger Bannister’s 4-minute mile record it’s truly remarkable to think that Kipchoge was nearing that 4 mile mark every mile for 26 miles.
In terms of athletic great stories, people are already comparing this story to probably the greatest of them all alongside Usain Bolt’s magical 09:58 100m record.
Eliud himself compared it to other great sporting achievements, before the race he mentioned Neil Armstrong becoming the first man on the moon and after the race he compared it to the record of the great Roger Bannister.
“I’m feeling good.”
After Roger Bannister made history, it took me another 65 years.
“I’ve tried but I’ve done it” said the Kenyan.
He followed that by saying: “This shows the positivity of sport. I want to make it a clean and interesting sport. Together when we run, we can make it a beautiful world.”
Eliud is now set to go down as an all-time great and arguably Kenyan’s greatest sporting hero.
The way the marathon is run is set to change forever.
Picture by thewolf under Creative Commons License.
